Rafael Correa

43 results arranged by date

Called to testify before a government media oversight commission, editorial cartoonist Xavier Bonilla--known by his penname Bonil--showed up with a pair of four-foot-long mock pencils. But rather than having a small eraser on the tip, one of Bonil's giant pencils was nearly all eraser.

Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa generated little actual news during a two-day trip to Chile last month. So Ecuador's four main newspapers did the obvious: They published short wire service dispatches about his visit.

Bogotá, February 3, 2014- The Committee to Protect
Journalists condemns the decision by Ecuador's media oversight agency on Friday
to use the country's communications law to sanction the leading local daily El Universo over a critical cartoon. The agency fined the daily and
demanded that the cartoonist "correct" the cartoon within 72 hours, according
to news reports.

Seven months after Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa flirted
with the idea of offering asylum to former National Security Agency contractor
Edward Snowden, intercepted communications and leaked emails are again making
headlines in the Andean country. This time, the story is not about
international surveillance but a window onto the latest front in the
ever-escalating war between the president and his critics.

That's how Juan Carlos Calderón, editor of the newsmagazine Vanguardia, described the June 28
closing of the newsweekly that for eight years published hard-hitting
investigations about public officials and faced frequent government harassment.
Yet the final days of Vanguardia were
almost as controversial as its stories.

After inspecting a hydroelectric project in
northern Ecuador last year, President Rafael Correa complained about the scant
press coverage of his visit and suggested it was part of a media blackout. "Did
the Ecuadoran media conspire to ignore this important event? It seems like that
is the case," Correa told the crowd at a
town hall meeting. "In this country, good news is not news."

New
York, June 14, 2013--The new Communications Law approved
today by the Ecuadoran National Assembly represents a severe blow to freedom of
expression, said the Committee to Protect Journalists. The law establishes
regulation of editorial content and gives authorities the power to impose
arbitrary sanctions and censor the press.